The present invention relates to a method for preventing or treating infection and disease in a mammal caused by a virus. More specifically, the invention relates to the administration of a quaternary ammonium compound to a mammal either before or after the virus has infected the host.
Viruses are associated with a large number of infections and diseases in mammals, such as man. Although modern medical science has developed some treatment techniques that are effective to prevent a particular disease, i.e., the polio vaccine, the art generally lacks a method by which a large number of different virus infections can be effectively prevented or treated.
Past treatments of various diseases caused by viruses have been largely ineffective. To inhibit viral replication, the growth of a virus, an agent must selectively inhibit one or more of the following specific functions: (1) adsorption, (2) uncoating, (3) transcription, (4) protein synthesis, (5) nucleic acid replication, (6) maturation, and (7) release.
For example, various agents developed in an attempt to treat Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2), (e.g. idoxuridine, cytosine arabinoside, adenine arabinoside, triflurothymidine, and acyclovir) all interfere with viral and host cellular functions. Because of host cell toxicity, these agents have been of very limited effectiveness for use, especially systemic, in humans to treat or prevent HSV-1 and HSV-2.
Accordingly, there is a strong need for a method that can effectively treat or prevent in a mammal infections and diseases caused by viruses, of which the above-mentioned HSV-1 and HSV-2 are merely examples. Although quaternary ammonium compounds have been known in the art, the art has failed to recognize that quaternary ammonium compounds can effectively treat and prevent in mammals infections and diseases associated with a variety of viruses, including HSV-1 and HSV-2. Quaternary ammonium compounds are analogous to ammonium salts in which organic radicals are substituted for all four hydrogens of the original ammonium cation.
Although tetraethylammonium chloride (TEAC), a quaternary ammonium compound, was briefly advocated for use in the 1950s to treat the pain associated with herpes zoster, this recommendation was subsequently abandoned. Thus, there was no recognition in the art that TEAC could be used to treat infections and diseases caused by a variety of other viruses.
Notwithstanding the long period during which quaternary ammonium compounds have been known and studied, the art has failed to recognize the ability of quaternary ammonium compounds to treat or prevent infections and diseases in a mammal caused by a virus. Similarly, the art has lacked any realization that quaternary ammonium compounds can produce an antiviral effect or inhibit the viral function in a mammal.